Letters: Seeing the light

Mike Harrison ('Light fantastic', Letters, 27 March) is correct to point out how difficult it is to calculate energy savings achieved by the use of low-consumption lighting. The interaction between such units and a thermostatically controlled heating system does indeed annul any of the usual savings that are quoted. Similarly, the question of the energy expended in manufacture is commonly ignored.

But the problem becomes even more complicated when one considers the interaction with the economic context. If domestic consumers succeed in reducing energy consumption through low energy devices they will save a certain proportion of their income. However, the expenditure of these savings on other products will involve further energy consumption. Indeed this energy consumption may well be greater than the energy previously saved.

It is theoretically possible that low-energy lights may increase the total energy consumed. Beware simplistic environmentalism.

Mike McKenna Enfield, Middlesex

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